Chapter 555: The Hunt: Encounter
*Bing-Bong*
We interrupted this chapter to provide a brief reminder of what zako are exactly, since it has been awhile since their last appearance.
Zakos are a type of [Chaos] infused lifeform created when the aforementioned energy is injected into items of little “value” or “worth”.
They lack the ability to cultivate due to having no cores, so in a way, they’re similar to proto-kaijin, but unlike proto-kaijin, they cannot develop a core and a formula over time and experience.
Their bodies can, however, mutate over time due to exposure to either certain types of energy, kaijin assignment, or the usage of a certain newly minted type of [Chaos] life known as a parasinner.
Regardless, a zako will remain a zako until a core is implemented, simple as that.
We now return to your regularly scheduled chapter.
…
You do know you’ll have to make an auxiliary chapter about this later, right?
|I am aware, just figured I’d have this primer here for chapter context.|
Right…
*Bing-Bong*
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“Huh…must’ve been my mind playing tricks on me,” Zhen Ren Fa concluded after staring down the dark hall an sweeping her senses through it, not noticing anything out of the ordinary.
Of course, even if she had been more physically observant, she would’ve only spotted some spiders, some coins and a bone figurine that might as well have been a toy. Combined with the fact that they weren’t radiating aether or any form of energy(she was familiar with), they were essentially marked in her head as “unimportant”.
Seeing how there was nothing there to actually bother her, Zhen Ren Fa simply clicked her tongue in annoyance before entering the room she was loitering in front of.
As she passed through the door, multiple tiny beings hiding in the darkness began to move, wanting to follow her through it.
Unfortunately, this was to be for naught.
*Skitter, skitter*
One of the braver,and faster, spider zakos ran ahead of the rest and was just about to pass through the door just before it closed.
“MROW!”
*SMASH*
Before it could though, the spider zako was unceremoniously smashed to pieces by when a silver jungle cat aether puppet appeared out of thin air and slammed a paw down on it.
*Skitter!*
*Clatter!*
*Clang!*
The zakos, regardless of their make, all stopped dead in their tracks as they eyed the cat puppet up and down, until finally focusing on the cat puppet’s claws.
Aside from the ruby stone eyes inlaid in the cat puppet’s head, these claws were the only part of it that weren’t metallic in slightest. In fact, they looked to be made from the claws of a different type of aether beast.
Normally an aether puppet shouldn’t be able to destroy a zako in a single hit, even in their shrunken down state of being figures.
However, the moment the cat puppet manifested itself and destroyed the spider zako, the others immediately detected an energy signature coming off of those claws that was deathly familiar to them.
[Dragon Force].
“Mrow…”
The jungle cat puppet let out an artificial growl as it gazed upon the miniature zakos with its ruby eyes, its dragon sourced claws scrapping against the stone floor as it walked towards them.
*Skitter, clatter, clank*
The zakos however, did not retreat.
“Mrow?”
Now, most creatures or things sent on a spy and/or scouting mission would make it a point to escape from anyone or anything that had managed to spot them. The reason being simply that as long as they could relay whatever information they had acquired without dying in the process, then it would be mission accomplished.
However, zakos weren’t like that.
*Skitter, clatter, clank*
Due to essentially being a little more than animated pieces of junk, the average level of intelligence and sentience in a zako was rather non-existent. While they could be sent out to do some tasks, the moment their tasks get disrupted the zakos will immediately revert back to their default behavior.
Namely, fighting to the bitter end against whatever opponent they were up against.
*Skitter, clatter, clank*
One by one, the zakos changed back into their original forms, taking on more humanoid shapes and producing weapons that were made of similar materials as their bodies. In fact, some of them were just straight up pulling swords and clubs out of their bodies like it was the most natural thing in the world.
Most people would find the sight of literal monsters manifesting out of small toys and getting ready for battle unsettling, not so much the case with aether puppets.
The ruby-eyed silver cat puppet stared on with exactly zero expressions on its face as the zakos prepared themselves for battle. It didn’t really matter to it, it just wanted to destroy whatever these things were. The feeling was mutual though, the zakos wanted this annoying cat destroyed, especially since it had taken out one of their own.
The zakos didn’t understand much, but they understood that they were
The cat puppet and the zakos stared down one another, a violent tension filling the air between them that was just about to explode. All it needed was someone to make the first move.
“Mrow…”
*Skitter, clatter, clang.*
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“What would be the fastest way to inform the patriarch about what had happened tonight?,” Zhen Ba Yin asked himself, “I don’t think he’s in office at this late hour, but a written report will take too much time as well…”
*Skitter, clatter, clang*
The zakos that had elected to follow Zhen Ba Yin were not disappointed in the slightest in their choice, given that this middle-aged soldier had been mumbling a lot of information that would definitely be of interest to their lord and the kaijin…at least they thought so anyways.
From what little information they could remember about their lord, the term “patriarch” was important, so if this middle-aged guy was going to go and meet a man with the title of “patriarch”, then they had to be important…right?
Either way, they made sure to keep a respectable distance from the man since they could tell he was a strong warrior with decent senses. The kind of senses that could detect their asses quite easily if they got too close. Unfortunately, such a strategy came with some obvious drawbacks.
“Wait…now that I think about…his aide should still be in the…”
Namely, how easy it was to lose sight of someone at their current distance.
*Skitter, clatter, clang*
At this point, the zakos had been following Zhen Ba Yin to the point where he was about to turn a corner and they were about to lose to sight of him.
Sensing the impending issue, several of the coin zakos elected to run ahead of the group to try and at least make sure they could see whether or not Zhen Ba Yin was entering a straightforward hall or one that turned into several other halls.
Unfortunately, this turned out to be a bad idea.
The coins zakos were just about to arrive at the turning point, when they were suddenly stopped by a wall of aether that appeared right in front of them and outright bounced them back towards the rest of the zakos.
The zakos were confused as to who or what could’ve caused this wall of force to appear, until the source of it made themselves known.
“Alright, let’s see what these intruders look…huh?”
*…*
Looming over the zakos was an Aether Grandmaster at least, with a form similar to what their lord would refer to as a “budai”, albeit, this one was covered in armor.
The warrior in question had a rotund yet muscular body, but was covered in aether armor that took on the form of metallic plates with a definitive eye motif to them, even the helmet looked somewhat fierce with several eyes decorating it that appeared to move on their own. The only part that wasn’t armored, was the large black beard that looked somehow both wild and well-kempt.
The armored budai stared down at the diminutive zakos in their disguised states, trying to determine why his aether senses didn’t match up with what he was seeing before him.
“I definitely sensed multiple signatures,” Zhen Bao mumbled, “but all I see are little knick…hold up.”
Zhen Bao knelt down in order to pick up a silver coin from the ground in order to better examine it.
Visually, looked every other silver coin he had touched in his life time, but when he extended his aether senses to it, something was clearly off.
“This is definitely the signature I picked up, but this isn’t a living-”
*CLANG!*
“-huh?!”
In the blink of an eye, the silver coin in Zhen Bao’s hand exploded in a burst of a light and transformed into a fully grown being that proceeded to try and kick him in the face. (Un)fortunately, he was covered head to toe in his aether armor.
The attack was surprising, but it didn’t really do anything.
“So that’s what I sensed…okay, mystery solved, y’all are gonna die now!”
CREATORS’ THOUGHTS
Mizako
Thinking of cutting the number of words per chapter to try and do multiple chapters a day.
I.e. Instead of one 1500ish chapter a day, will try to do two 1000 word chapters.
